KITHOOD [0-6 Moons]

Barbkit was born second in a litter of five to the beloved couple Cicadasong and Canyoncry, after Arnicakit and before Agavekit, Springkit, and Miragekit. From day one the little tom knew without question what it was to be loved, supported, and cherished. His parents were happily mated, all of his siblings and him were born chubby and healthy, and they arrived just as peace was to be negotiated between the long at war CliffClan and CaveClan. It was a bright start to a hopefully bright future.

Peace was negotiated after a rough start, so Barbkit never really knew the troubles of war. He knew CaveClan had done something in the past that warranted CliffClan’s ire, but he also understood that he shouldn’t concern himself with that. Now was a time for peace.

His first taste of real life came when lightning struck, almost claiming the deputy at the time, Bearclaw’s, life. It was scary and a real eye opener, but it didn’t deter the young tom from wanting to grow up very much. However, it did awaken a mother hen instinct concerning his siblings within him. From that day forth, any time they were getting up to their antics, Barbkit kept a close eye on the rest of his litter.

APPRENTICESHIP [6-17 Moons]

Barbpaw was assigned Stagleap as a mentor, and started his journey of becoming a CliffClan guard with a tour of the territory. It was quite an adjustment for the youngster, who’d grown used to having one of his siblings by his side at all times, or being able to spend a quiet afternoon with his parents when he wished. Luckily Stagleap was aware and accepting of this rough adjustment period and worked it into their schedule that Barbpaw would occasionally have a chance to meet up with one of his family members outside of going to sleep at night.

The beginning of his apprenticeship was wholly uneventful, until the fateful evening of the second Gathering- when the mountain lions attacked the scantily guarded CliffClan camp and took it for their own. If he’d thought adjusting to less time with his family was a problem, he’d been wrong. Learning to navigate the pitch black tunnels while trying to maintain a source of normalcy while continuing training with Stagleap was hard work, but work he managed nonetheless. He’d been wary about the whole situation at first, not knowing what to expect from their neighbor Clan, though he quickly realized they weren’t all that bad. He even made a friend by the name of Silverpaw, an exciting prospect indeed, since most other CliffClan apprentices were either his siblings or far older than him.

The transition back into CliffClan reclaiming their camp should have been easy for him to handle, should have been a relief to him about being back somewhere normal, but his life was thrown off kilter more than ever. All within a brief two or three moons, he lost his grandfather to a mountain lion, was finally made aware of the fact that not all Clan cats might exactly like bobcats (which was his heritage), and was scrambling to play catch up on his training to become a warrior.

After helping protect a CaveClanner by the name of Doedancer from a deadly rattlesnake attack, the young half-bobcat earned his warrior name alongside the rest of his siblings.

WARRIORHOOD [18+ Moons]

Now Barbtooth, the newly minted guard was given his own squad, in the form of Rattlerbite and Elfwind. He'd been looking forward to being paired with one, or even two, of his siblings, but he made due with the new friends he had! And, while used to being resposinble before, there had definitely been a learning curve for him.

For a while all was good, even if Elfwind was quickly transferred to a different squad in favor of pairing the older Duskleap with Rattlerbite and Barbtooth. Rattlerbite was always interested in having fun, keeping the vibes light and free within the whole squad. Even after Stagleap's warning that he needed to mature a bit, Barbtooth likely might have never succeeded if it weren't for what eventually happened.

While on a patrol, Stagleap got caught up in a mudslide. The tom's child, Oleandergaze, also got caught up in it trying to save their father. The patrol rushed the inured Clanmates back to camp, Barbtooth, who had been on guard duty, meeting them halfway to help carry his mentor into camp. It had been too late, however, Stagleap passing in the blink of an eye.

Life having thoroughly slapped him in the face, the young half-bobcat volunteered for a patrol sent out to look for more possible dangers in the territory after the snowmelt season. It was here that he truly failed protecting a Clanmate for the first time during his job as a guard, Gourdlight falling victim to a hungry coyote. Barbtooth, and the rest of the patrol, valiantly took care of the coyote, resulting in an injury to himself and Sootshine each, before rushing Gourdlight home. But it was too late for the hunter. After physically caring the injured tom back to camp, Barbtooth was now left with the ghost of that weight on his shoulders.